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The Israeli air bombardment of Gaza entered its fourth day on Friday, and has now claimed a total of 103 lives, as Hamas and Israel exchanged rocket fire and Washington offering to help broker peace.
11 Palestinians, including a seven-year-old and a woman, were killed in separate Israeli strikes on Gaza on Friday, taking the death toll for the past four days to 103, medics said. Over 500 people have now been injured in Gaza; there have been no deaths in Israel, and less than a dozen people have been injured, medics said.
Raising fears of the conflict expanding, one rocket that struck open area in Israel seemed to have come from Lebanon, prompting soldiers to retaliate with artillery fire, the Israeli army said. Because of the rocket, a Polish passenger flight destined for Tel Aviv had to make an emergency stop in Cyprus, and was forced to turn around and return to Poland, aviation authorities said.
The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ armed wing, kept up a stream of steady rocket fire on Israel. Gaza rockets over Tel Aviv were shot down by the Iron Dome anti-missile system, the Israeli army said. The Brigades have said that they had fired M75 missiles at the main airport.
Ben Gurion, Israel’s Airport Authority, said that the airport was shut down for “nine minutes,” before normal operations resumed. Hamas had warned “all foreign airlines” to stop flights due to “the dangers surrounding all the airports due to the ongoing war”.
Diplomatic efforts to bring hostilities between Hamas and Israel to an end gathered pace as US President Barack Obama called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“The United States remains prepared to facilitate a cessation of hostilities”, the White House said.
Netanyahu, however, remained unmoved and said that the air campaign on Gaza will not end until he achieves his goal of ending Hamas fire.
“No international pressure will prevent us from striking the terrorists who are attacking us. I had a very good conversation with President Obama and other leaders. All of these leaders understand the need to act”, he said at a press conference in Tel Aviv.
Despite mounting concerns, all truce efforts are falling on deaf ears, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said. Egypt had played a key mediatory role and had negotiated truce between Israel and Hamas in the past.
“Egypt has communicated with all sides to halt violence against civilians and called on them to continue with the truce agreement signed in November 2012. Unfortunately, these efforts… have met with stubbornness”, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said.